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Home / People / Charles Arbuthnot

Historical person

Charles Arbuthnot

1767–1850

Charles Arbuthnot was a British diplomat and politician who served as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, held several government offices and became a close associate of the Duke of Wellington. His wife, Harriet Arbuthnot, was also one of Wellington’s most trusted friends and kept a detailed political diary.

Charles remained within Wellington’s personal circle after Harriet’s death and provided a link between diplomatic service, parliament and elite social life in the Regency period. His career nevertheless offers a useful perspective on the networks through which diplomacy, patronage and friendship operated around senior British statesmen.

Julian Stockwin’s Pasha uses Ambassador Charles Arbuthnot’s position at Constantinople to anchor its diplomatic crisis. With Britain fearing growing French influence over the Ottoman government, Kydd is sent into the Dardanelles to evacuate Arbuthnot and support an attempt to pressure the Porte before the straits become too strongly defended. Arbuthnot’s vulnerability turns high diplomacy into an immediate naval problem, linking the fictional mission to Britain’s real struggle to prevent the Ottoman Empire from falling into Napoleon’s strategic orbit.

Periods

Periods linked to Charles Arbuthnot

Asian Historyc. 221 BCE–present Ottoman Empire1299–1922 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Charles Arbuthnot (1 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2(24,001)

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

All books in this series